Dear Prime Minister I write with respect towards four burning issues.
Photo courtesy richardbransonfan.com
1.The fares extorted by British Airways and Richard Branson’s Virgin Airlines from Jamaicans going to Jamaica must stop.They are operating a duopoly with BA going to Palisadoes near to Kingston and Virgin going to Montego Bay.
This price fixing cartelisation must be stopped.Air Jamaica allowed two 70 pounds baggage allowance per passenger but Branson (who got rich by selling Reggae music which enabled him to buy the airline) reduced it to 50 pounds per passenger.As an Afrikan from St. Catherine, Jamaica like me Prime Minister,you know that we take things for ourselves,family, friends and strangers so this drastic reduction is most oppressive financially.
Omar Davies was totally wrong and unpatriotic to sell the lucrative Heathrow slots for a paltry sum to Branson which has forced Jamaicans to go via Gatwick which is more expensive to reach.Guess what?
To add insult to injury, Branson made those going to Barbadoes travel via Heathrow! Mike Henry from Spanish Town, the original capital (1534) like myself and High Commissioner Ms Aloun Assamba,was going to rightfully reverse the Heathrow decision but Bruce Golding in a move that his father Tacius Golding would have deplored removed the portfolio from his own minister Henry in order to please Branson.I wonder why Davies and Golding were so subservient to Branson.
2.Marcus Garvey the greatest Pan Afrikanist leader ever and Jamaica’s first National Hero said that we Afrikans MUST EMANCIPATE OURSELVES FROM MENTAL SLAVERY etc.I totally agreed with you to make Jamaica a republic like Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana etc.What is happening re this long overdue change to a republic? Amy Ashwood Garvey,the first wife is my Mother’s Mother’s cousin and the second wife Amy Jacques Garvey I knew and conversed with well at their St. Andrew home as her eldest son Marcus Garvey Jnr. was my Physics teacher and very good friend at Kingston Technical High School.
Luciano. Photo courtesy livetaos.com
3.My total opposition to Goat Island becoming a Chinese island is twofold.The area is environmentally protected re fauna and flora etc.The Chinese have refused to build at three or more suitable sites in mainland Jamaica.They want an island that they want to own and control…a sort of Guantanamo Bay like the Americans have in Cuba.WE WANT NO CHINESE ISLAND IN JAMAICAN TERRITORY MASQUERADING AS ANY TRANSSHIPMENT HUB.
4.Reggae artists,Donald ‘Tabby’ Shaw of the Mighty Diamonds, Luciano, Josey Wales and George Nooks were recently denied visas to come to work as performing artists in England.Tabby has been touring England since the 1970s (One of the best selling albums by Branson’s Virgin Records in the 1970s was the Channel One produced Mighty Diamonds album) and Josey and Nooks have been touring from the 1980s.Luciano has been touring England from the 1990s. Please do something and right these discriminatory wrongs.I know you are persuasive.
Aah,finally…this turning off of sound systems at 2a.m. that P J Patterson brought in is wreaking havoc in the lives of poor people and I know you love the poor.Sound system dances feed a lot of families as vendors sell food and drinks etc and sounds employ people in various capacities like advertising,printing,transport,sound engineering,electricians,boxes moving labour staff etc.My Father, Teacher Williams of Friendship Government School,St. John’s Road,Spanish Town (My Mother was the Deputy Headmistress) allowed the top sounds in Jamaica to play in the schoolroom…
Count Nicks,Tom the Great Sebastian, Mellow Canary, Sir Coxsone, Duke Reid, Stereo,Wasp, Ruddys the Supreme Ruler of Sounds from Spanish Town that the great King Tubbys patterned himself after, Mudies, Whip, Sir Percy, Jammys before Jammys was named ‘King’ by the legendary record producer Bunny Lee my father’s friend,Prince Buster’s sound and many others.The club owners love this 2a.m. stop because it helps pull sound system fans to their clubs.I SAY TURN DOWN THE SOUND SYSTEMS AT 2.A.M AND DO NOT TURN OFF.SOUNDS A DI RADIOS OF THE PEOPLE.
Kind regards,
Mandingo the Garveyite/Pan Afrikanist.
